The news rolled through the frozen Ningguta like a thunderclap on the Awakening of Insects.
“What? The Shen Family Girl is building a house? The officer approved the land?”
“Stop talking nonsense! It’s freezing cold—even the mice are too cold to move. How can construction start?”
“Who cares! Did Old Seven bring his family’s hewing axe? Little Six, go carry lumber!”
“Shen Girl said if we split the timber, we can draw well water every day! Not a bad deal!”
The crowd wrapped in tattered cotton-padded jackets, carrying shovels, axes, and rusty picks, surged forward like a muddy warm current, shattering the deathly silence of the frozen wilderness.
Some dragged frostbitten legs, hobbling forward step by step; others brandished chipped firewood knives as they rushed toward the snow-laden withered forest. Their chapped hands swung tools heavily against tree trunks frozen hard as iron.
Upon the relay station’s watchtower, Xie Yunjing’s black cloak whipped violently in the bitter north wind.
Gazing at the ant-like crowd gathering and chopping on the distant frozen ground, at that small yet tireless figure hopping about giving directions in the snow, his fingertips slowly rubbed against the cold, rough surface of the crenelated bricks.
Human hearts… could indeed be like black coal buried deep beneath this frozen earth. Once ignited—they blazed into a scorching sea of fire.
Shen Taotao, just how many more surprises do you have that I don’t know about?
Before dawn the next day, a gray-black steed tore across the snowy plains like a speeding fissure.
The wind became a blunt knife slicing at their faces, pelting them with ice particles.
Shen Taotao felt as if she’d been stuffed into a high-speed torture device—ice-cold wind whipped up by the galloping horse blinded her ahead, while behind her burned a wall of scorching iron. Xie Yunjing’s chest, separated by two layers of wolfskin coats, radiated heat intense enough to melt her spine.
Caught between this icy hell and fiery mountain torment, she felt she might be torn apart at any moment.
Instinctively trying to escape the blistering heat behind her, she leaned forward involuntarily.
But as the horse jolted, she slammed backward against him with unexpected force.
Thump!
The back of her head struck his chest with a dull thud.
Almost simultaneously, every vibration from the galloping horse made her body rub and grind against Xie Yunjing’s burning, solid torso.
The intensity, the frequency… Shen Taotao could clearly feel his abdominal muscles tensed into iron.
Worse still, her dangling legs swayed erratically against the saddle edges with the horse’s motion, occasionally brushing against Xie Yunjing’s inner thighs through the thick fabric…
“Shen! Tao! Tao!” Xie Yunjing’s roar was sharpened between his teeth into ice blades. “Keep squirming—and I’ll throw you to the wolves!”
Shen Taotao strained to turn her wind-numbed face slightly: “How is this my fault? Are you riding a mad horse? My butt’s nearly rattled into eight pieces!” Icy wind rushed into her mouth, triggering violent coughs that made her body contract and expand, her waist once again crashing against the scorching wall behind her.
“Stay still!” Xie Yunjing snarled, yet one arm tightened around Shen Taotao’s waist to prevent her falling.
“Who’s not being still?” Shen Taotao retorted hoarsely, her voice shredded by the wind: “If you dare… cough… dare to try being tied to a saddle without riding skills, like a fish grilled on both sides… Mmph!”
Her words were abruptly cut off.
Xie Yunjing’s arm tightened around her waist, lifting and pressing with sudden force. Shen Taotao was violently slammed against his solid, scorching chest, her head nearly pressed against his neck and jaw, which glistened with fine beads of heat.
The man’s burning, ragged breath hit her frozen, numb earlobe. “One more word…” The icy threat ground out between his teeth, mingling with the crisp sound of hooves crushing the icy crust, pierced straight into Shen Taotao’s bones. “I’ll show you right now… what true ‘roasting’ really means.”
Shen Taotao wisely clamped her mouth shut, only releasing two puffs of white mist from her nostrils.
But every jolt became a hidden grinding. The veins on Xie Yunjing’s hand, wrapped around her waist, bulged like twisted ropes, as if he were using every ounce of his will to restrain the raging beast within him.
The rhythm of his chest’s rise and fall quickened, the sharp line of his clenched jaw sharp enough to slice through the wind.
Zhang Xun, leading the way ahead, glanced back at the two figures pressed together on horseback. His gaze swept over the sweat beading on his master’s temple and the faint redness on his neck, partially hidden by Shen Girl’s disheveled hair.
Zhang Xun’s lips twitched violently, the reins in his hand trembling so much he nearly lost his grip.
Heavens! This wasn’t a search for coal—it was lighting a wildfire that could scorch their hearts and melt their bones!
When the horse’s hooves crushed the last mile of ice, Shen Taotao tumbled off the saddle, stiff as a frozen stick, and plummeted straight into a snowdrift.
Without a second thought, Xie Yunjing’s long arm shot out, locking around her waist and pulling her back.
Thump!
Shen Taotao’s forehead collided with his shoulder, stars bursting before her eyes.
“Stand straight!” Xie Yunjing growled, his knuckles turning white from the force of his grip.
Shen Taotao had no energy left for banter. She shook her head, covered in snow, and trudged forward unsteadily toward the dark mountain ahead.
“Here!” After observing for a moment, Shen Taotao pointed to an ice cascade on the shaded side of the mountain. “Break it open! Look for black stones with shiny streaks!”
The guards swung their hammers against the icy rock. Xie Yunjing stood behind her, arms crossed, his black cloak spread wide to shield her from the mountain wind.
Shen Taotao knelt halfway in the spray of ice and stone chips, her frost-reddened fingers digging into the rock crevices. She pulled out a handful of black, ashy gravel and brought it to her nose: the sulfurous smell of low-grade coal mixed with the icy scent assaulted her senses.
Without blinking, she hurled the gravel fiercely into the snow. “Not hard enough! Three feet down, focus on the layer with dark red rust!”
The hammering intensified.
The guards pried open three feet of frozen rock with iron rods. Beneath it, the rock layer was covered in a fine, scale-like frost, winding through the gray-white mountain like the patterns of an ink dragon.
Shen Taotao lunged forward, snatched a pickaxe, and struck fiercely.
Clang!
As sparks flew, a palm-sized, glossy black coal nugget rolled into the snow, like a slumbering black sun.
“Cover it tightly!” Shen Taotao grabbed a handful of snow and shielded it.
Xie Yunjing knelt on one knee in the deep snow, his fingers pinching the coal chunk.
With a slight squeeze of his fingertips—black powder scattered like dust.
He lifted his gaze, his eyes reflecting the deep black hue. “If even half a word of what you saw today is leaked—” His frost-blade-like glare swept over each guard’s face. “I’ll execute nine generations and render their fat.”